Chapter 15 of Boole's "The Laws of Thought" is an exposition and critique
of Aristotle's system of logic. The main critical point seems to be that a
fundamental form of inference such as modus ponens cannot be cast into
syllogistic form. He does not appear to have seen that Aristotle's
inability to handle multiple quantification, or functional dependencies,
is also a defect. Boole mention Mill as one of his predecessors who were
too ready to believe that Aristotle's system was adequate for all
deductive reasoning.
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Neil W. Tennant
Professor of Philosophy and Adjunct Professor of Cognitive Science
http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/tennant9/
Please send snail mail to:
Department of Philosophy
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The Ohio State University
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